Friday, October 12, 2012

CyberTracker quiz question #5

The question here was what animal made these tracks. You're at a slight
disadvantage here, because a bit of a trail pattern was evident, but I
unfortunately did not photograph that. On the other hand, the photo
takes you right to the best track there was, and you get to see an
enlarged version without having to fight for a magnifying glass and
kneel in the mud. Plus, I'm pretty sure they'd put a track like this on
the cybertracker exam, even if no other tracks were evident. Go for it.

4 comments:

  1. Forget to tell you the habitat: this was on a road in a part of the quarry that hadn't been dug up for awhile, and on either side of the road was a large expanse of hip high grassy and herbaceous growth.

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  2. My original guess was opossum, after seeing the star-shaped track. But seeing the key for scale suggests a much smaller animal. I'll guess toad, despite the lack of toad scat.

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  3. Neither mink nor toad. This is jumping mouse, and given the habitat, a meadow jumping mouse. See this photo for a nice set of tracks of all 4 feet:
    http://naturalskills.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/jumping_mouse2_kplains_6-07.jpg

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